Relational databases derive much of their value from the relationships between the tables they store. Likewise, the Enterprise Object technology includes infrastructure that brings relationship data to life in data-driven applications.
A relationship expresses the affinity between tables in a data source. In the most simple case, a relationship expresses a meaningful connection between two tables in a data source. You can also think of relationships as cross-references much like entries in a book’s index. A single index entry can cross-reference one or more other index entries so that there is a relationship between index entries.
For example, a Person table could be related to a PersonPhoto
table by a relationship called toPhoto.
In relationship lingo, the Person table is referred to as the source
table or source entity that contains source records. The PersonPhoto
table is referred to as the destination table or destination entity that
contains destination records.